Ancient Utah Jazz All-Star Gordon Hayward has been making headlines since announcing his retirement from the NBA. He is ending his career after 14 years and has been outspoken ever since.
Hayward’s latest news comes from Round Ball Roundup on the team’s website, where he was asked what motivated him to leave Salt Lake City and sign with the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2017, breaking the hearts of jazz fans around the world.
“Brad [Stevens] “That’s one of the main reasons I left,” Hayward said. “Brad was the first coach that told me he thought I had a chance to play in the NBA, and he recruited me — he was actually an assistant coach at Butler when I was in high school, recruited me and ended up being the head coach at Butler. So I had a great relationship with Brad and I thought it was the best step for me and my family to move forward with my NBA career. So that’s the reason I left, but it was something that was eating away at me.”
“I mean that was one of the things that was so cool about Jazz…”@jp_chunga sat down with @gordonhayward to reflect on his incredible career in the league and his time with the Jazz. Listen #RoundballRoundup wherever you get your podcasts or watch now on YouTube 📺⤵️
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) August 21, 2024
Jazz fans will never forget the day they learned Hayward had left for greener pastures. At the time, it seemed like a coin toss, but in hindsight, his departure was indeed imminent.
Unfortunately, Hayward’s career in Boston got off to a rough start due to a gruesome injury in which he dislocated his ankle and fractured his left tibia just five minutes into his Celtics debut. He was able to come back and put up decent numbers, but he was never able to be the player who made the All-Star team in his final season with the Jazz.
Utah was able to bounce back quickly after Hayward’s departure, thanks to the emergence of Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell was drafted a month before Hayward left, and the success of a trio of Mitchell, Hayward and Rudy Gobert in the NBA will always be a mystery.
Even Hayward is uncomfortable with the decision and has reflected on his time in Salt Lake City as a jazz player.
“Even looking back on it now, it hurts a little bit,” Hayward said. “I’ve had so many great years and I still have so many great relationships with the people that are here today. I have friends, you know, so it was definitely a tough decision.”
Now that the dust has settled on Hayward’s time in Utah, will Jazz fans remember him as a villain? He wasn’t welcomed back to the Delta Center with the Celtics with open arms.
However, neither was former Jazz point guard Deron Williams, and those barriers have been mended. Fans should remember the good days rather than dwell on the Jazz’s rift with Hayward.
Time will tell, but it appears Hayward has moved on and has no hard feelings about his time with the Jazz.
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